Jaden Newman isn't a normal girls basketball player. The 9-year-old earned national headlines in January for playing on her school's varsity high school basketball team while still in fourth grade. Yet she's now getting attention of a more formal kind that raises even more eyebrows: She's being formally recruited by a major collegiate program.

Earlier in June, Newman received an official recruiting letter from the University of Miami's girls basketball program. The Miami recruiting efforts have been led by assistant coach Derrick Gibbs, beginning with a phone call to the Newman family through Jaden Newman's Downey Christian School. Given that she is coached by her father, it wasn't too hard to get in touch with the youngster's family, and shortly thereafter she was sent the recruiting packet that you see in the photo below by the Miami coaching staff. All of these recruiting contacts and timeline were confirmed by Newman's father, Jamie Newman, in an email exchange and interview with USA Today.

On June 10, Jaden Newman took an unofficial recruiting visit to Miami, where she toured the program's facilities and got to mug inside the Miami "U", among other experiences.

So why is Miami recruiting a 9-year-old player? And why is her family taking this seriously? To feed their own hype machines, of course.

Miami is a fair-to-middling basketball program, finishing 16-15 after an opening-round loss in the Women's NIT in 2013-14, that needs a little something extra to get noticed in a women's college world dominated by your Connecticuts, Notre Dames and Baylors. Miami, in making such an outlandish offer, isn't serious yet that in another half-lifetime away Jaden Newman will play basketball there. Hey, if she thinks about it as she (hopefully) improves, great. But with all the press (like this) Miami is getting for its recruitment of a pre-tween, it's sent an important message -- we have a women's basketball program.

As for Jaden Newman, I wrote in February about her 12-year-old brother, Julian, as well as her, both of them products of the hypemaster that is their father, Jamie. Julian has appeared on multiple television talk shows and magazines to show off his skills, which to be sure, are pretty good for a 12-year-old. And though Downey Christian is a small school with a basketball program that isn't exactly Findlay Prep, sure, it's impressive a 9-year-old can beat a 17-year-old at anything athletic. But, still, Jamie Newman has, in a very organized and systematic way, found ways to make sure he can hype his kids so they will outshine any other presumed prodigies out there. And, thus, get extra hype by getting college recruitment letters at very young ages.

I guess I can't call this whole process wrong. Everybody is getting what they want, in theory. I'm wondering, though, by the time the Newman children get to college age, if they and the schools allegedly interested in them will play this game to a successful conclusion, whatever they deem that to be. I wish them the best, but call me cynical, I'm not sure all will go as planned in the end.